Search results for: dry land environment

Authors: Maud Mthembu, Tanusha Raniga, Michael Boecker

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In South Africa and Germany, countless number of children are raised by single mothers with little or no support from the biological fathers. As evidenced in literature, having an involved father living at home can have a positive influence in the life of a child and the mother can be supported in her role. Often single parenting is seen as a causative factor in numerous psychological and social challenges which are faced by children from single-parent households, which is an indication of a pathological lens of viewing single parenting. The empirical data from our study reveals that single mothers in formal employment experience social, economic and emotional hardships of parenting. However, a sense of determination to raise healthy and well-balanced children using economic and social capital accessible to them was one of the key findings. The participants reported visible and invisible sources of support which creates an enabling environment for them to negotiate the challenges of parenting without support from non-residence fathers. Using a qualitative paradigm, a total of twenty professional single mothers were interviewed in Germany and South Africa. Four key themes emerged from the data analysis namely; internal locus of control, positive new experiences, access to economic capital and dependable social support. This study suggests that single mothers who are economically self-reliant and have access to bonding social capital are able to cope with the demands of single parenting. Understanding this multi-dimensional experience of parenting by single parents in formal employment is important to advocate for supportive working conditions for mothers.

Keywords: child parenting, child protection, single parenting, social capital

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Nor Azlina Ab.Rahman, Salwana Hassan, Zuraeda Ibrahim, Normah Omar, Jamaliah Said

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Revolution in the business environment has crucial growing changes on most globalized markets. Numerous of organizations are necessitating towards producing more proactive entrepreneurs with a dynamic teams, who can run and steer their business to victory. Revolutionizing on business strategy and entrepreneurial skills, also implementing innovation and practices to enhance its performance is necessary for these organizations to be more cost-efficient and increase their efficiency. The study aims to clarify issues of whether measurement has a positive effect on different aspects of innovation and best practices. The study contributes to the current understanding in three ways; first by presenting the important aspects of organizational innovation and best practices. Second by showing the importance of measurement in promoting different aspects of innovation and best practices. Third is to examine the link between innovation, best practices and sustainability in microfinance. The study has been executed by conducting a qualitative study toward the microfinance industry. A representative of management and employees in each company was selected through an invitation to participate in getting information for data collection purpose in the study. The study contains a comprehensive description of the impacts of measurement on different aspects of innovation and best practices towards sustainability in both microfinance industries and SMEs. Findings from this study shows that performance measurement has positive effects on issues related to innovation and best practices. The measurement for several aspects of innovation and best practices is good potential in microfinance industries. Additionally, measurement on innovation and best practices shows a positively related with each other to enhance organization performance. The study suggests that both academics and practitioners should focus on the development of new methods and practices to describe and scrutinize further understanding for measuring issues which is related to innovation and best practices, in order to better develop innovation and best practices towards sustainability. This effort would not only contribute to firm’s success, but also toward the development of the nation in the developing countries.

Keywords: best practices, innovation, microfinance, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 508

Authors: Dalila Oulhaci, Mehdi Benlarbi, Mohammed Zahaf

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The irrigation method is fundamental for maintaining a wet bulb around the roots of the crop. This is the case with localized irrigation, where soil moisture can be maintained permanently around the root system between the two water content extremes. Also, one of the oldest methods used since Roman times throughout North Africa and the Near East is based on the frequent dumping of water into porous pottery vases buried in the ground. In this context, these two techniques have been combined by replacing the pottery vase with plastic bottles filled with sand that discharge water through their perforated walls into the surrounding soil. The first objective of this work is the theoretical determination using CLIMWAT and CROPWAT software of the irrigation doses of some crops (palm, wheat, and onion) and experimental by measuring the humidity of the soil before and after watering. The second objective is to determine the purifying power of the sand filter in the bottle. Based on the CROPWAT software results, the date palm needs 18.5 mm in the third decade of December, 57.2 mm in January, and 73.7 mm in February, whereas the doses received by experimentally determined by means of soil moisture before and after irrigation are 19.5 mm respectively, 79.66 mm and 95.66 mm. The onion needs 14.3 mm in the third decade of December of, 59.1 mm in January, and 80 mm in February, whereas the experimental dose received is 15.07 mm, respectively, 64.54 and 86.8 mm. The total requirements for the vegetative period are estimated at 1642.6 mm for date palms, 277.4 mm for wheat, and 193.5 mm for onions. The removal rate of the majority of pollutants from the bottle is 80%. This work covers, on the one hand, the context of water conservation, sustainable development, and protection of the environment, and on the other, the agricultural field.

Keywords: irrigation, sand, filter, humidity, bottle

Procedia PDF Downloads 45

Authors: George Mahalu

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The Chua diode has been configured over time in various ways, using electronic structures like as operational amplifiers (OAs) or devices with gas or semiconductors. When discussing the use of semiconductor devices, tunnel diodes (Esaki diodes) are most often considered, and more recently, transistorized configurations such as lambda diodes. The paper-work proposed here uses in the modeling a lambda diode type configuration consisting of two Junction Field Effect Transistors (JFET). The original scheme is created in the MULTISIM electronic simulation environment and is analyzed in order to identify the conditions for the appearance of evolutionary unpredictability specific to nonlinear dynamic systems with chaos-induced behavior. The chaotic deterministic oscillator is one autonomous type, a fact that places it in the class of Chua’s type oscillators, the only significant and most important difference being the presence of a nonlinear device like the one mentioned structure above. The chaotic behavior is identified both by means of strange attractor-type trajectories and visible during the simulation and by highlighting the hypersensitivity of the system to small variations of one of the input parameters. The results obtained through simulation and the conclusions drawn are useful in the further research of ways to implement such constructive electronic solutions in theoretical and practical applications related to modern small signal amplification structures, to systems for encoding and decoding messages through various modern ways of communication, as well as new structures that can be imagined both in modern neural networks and in those for the physical implementation of some requirements imposed by current research with the aim of obtaining practically usable solutions in quantum computing and quantum computers.

Keywords: chaos, lambda diode, strange attractor, nonlinear system

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Solmaz Jahed Shiran, John Hearne, Tayebeh Saghapour

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Daily travel behavior is strongly influenced by the location of the places of residence, education, and employment. Hence a change in those locations due to a move or changes in an occupation leads to a change in travel behavior. Given the interventions of housing mobility and travel behaviors, the hypothesis is that a mobile housing market allows households to move as a result of any change in their life course, allowing them to be closer to central services, public transport facilities and workplace and hence reducing the time spent by individuals on daily travel. Conversely, household’s immobility may lead to longer commutes of residents, for example, after a change of a job or a need for new services such as schools for children who have reached their school age. This paper aims to investigate the association between residential mobility and travel behavior. The Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity (VISTA) data is used for the empirical analysis. Car ownership and journey to work time and distance of employed people are used as indicators of travel behavior. Change of usual residence within the last five years used to identify movers and non-movers. Statistical analysis, including regression models, is used to compare the travel behavior of movers and non-movers. The results show travel time, and the distance does not differ for movers and non-movers. However, this is not the case when taking into account the residence tenure-type. In addition, car ownership rate and number found to be significantly higher for non-movers. It is hoped that the results from this study will contribute to a better understanding of factors other than common socioeconomic and built environment features influencing travel behavior.

Keywords: journey to work, regression models, residential mobility, commute mode, car ownership

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Mohammad Reza Zamanian

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The construction industry has always been recognized as one of the most dangerous available industries, and the statistics of accidents and injuries resulting from it say that the safety category needs more attention and the arrival of up-to-date technologies in this field. Building information modeling (BIM) is one of the relatively new and applicable technologies in Iran, that the necessity of using it is increasingly evident. The main purposes of this research are to evaluate the feasibility of using this technology in the safety sector of construction projects and to evaluate the effectiveness and operationality of its various applications in this sector. These applications were collected and categorized after reviewing past studies and researches then a questionnaire based on Delphi method criteria was presented to 30 experts who were thoroughly familiar with modeling software and safety guidelines. After receiving and exporting the answers to SPSS software, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed to evaluate the measuring tools. Fuzzy logic is a good way to analyze data because of its flexibility in dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty issues, and the implementation of the Delphi method in the fuzzy environment overcomes the uncertainties in decision making. Therefore, this method was used for data analysis, and the results indicate the usefulness and effectiveness of BIM in projects and improvement of safety status at different stages of construction. Finally, the applications and the sections discussed were ranked in order of priority for efficiency and effectiveness. Safety planning is considered as the most influential part of the safety of BIM among the four sectors discussed, and planning for the installation of protective fences and barriers to prevent falls and site layout planning with a safety approach based on a 3D model are the most important applications of BIM among the 18 applications to improve the safety of construction projects.

Keywords: building information modeling, safety of construction projects, Delphi method, fuzzy logic

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Lanka Dinushke Weerasiri, Subrat Das, Daniel Fabijanic, William Yang

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Fluidization at vacuum pressure has been a topic that is of growing research interest. Several industrial applications (such as drying, extractive metallurgy, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD)) can potentially take advantage of vacuum pressure fluidization. Particularly, the fine chemical industry requires processing under safe conditions for thermolabile substances, and reduced pressure fluidized beds offer an alternative. Fluidized beds under vacuum conditions provide optimal conditions for treatment of granular materials where the reduced gas pressure maintains an operational environment outside of flammability conditions. The fluidization at low-pressure is markedly different from the usual gas flow patterns of atmospheric fluidization. The different flow regimes can be characterized by the dimensionless Knudsen number. Nevertheless, hydrodynamics of bubbling vacuum fluidized beds has not been investigated to author’s best knowledge. In this work, the two-fluid numerical method was used to determine the impact of reduced pressure on the fundamental properties of a fluidized bed. The slip flow model implemented by Ansys Fluent User Defined Functions (UDF) was used to determine the interphase momentum exchange coefficient. A wide range of operating pressures was investigated (1.01, 0.5, 0.25, 0.1 and 0.03 Bar). The gas was supplied by a uniform inlet at 1.5U_mf and 2U_mf. The predicted minimum fluidization velocity (U_mf) shows excellent agreement with the experimental data. The results show that the operating pressure has a notable impact on the bed properties and its hydrodynamics. Furthermore, it also shows that the existing Gorosko correlation that predicts bed expansion is not applicable under reduced pressure conditions.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, fluidized bed, gas-solid flow, vacuum pressure, slip flow, minimum fluidization velocity

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Authors: Ali Asgary, Haopeng Zhou, Ghassem Tofighi

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Use of virtual (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality technologies for training and education has increased in recent years as more hardware and software tools have become available and accessible to larger groups of users. Similarly, the applications of these technologies in earthquake related training and education are on the rise. Several studies have reported promising results for the use of VR and AR for evacuation behaviour and training under earthquake situations. They simulate the impacts that earthquake has on buildings, buildings’ contents, and how building occupants and users can find safe spots or open paths to outside. Considering that considerable number of earthquake injuries and fatalities are linked to the behaviour, our goal is to use these technologies to reduce the impacts of building contents on people. Building on our artificial intelligence (AI) based indoor earthquake risk assessment application that enables users to use their mobile device to assess the risks associated with building contents during earthquakes, we develop a virtual reality application to demonstrate the behavior of different building contents during earthquakes, their associate moving, spreading, falling, and collapsing risks, and their risk mitigation methods. We integrate realistic seismic models, building contents behavior with and without risk mitigation measures in virtual reality environment. The application can be used for training of architects, interior design experts, and building users to enhance indoor safety of the buildings that can sustain earthquakes. This paper describes and demonstrates the application development background, structure, components, and usage.

Keywords: virtual reality, earthquake damage, building content, indoor risks, earthquake risk mitigation, interior design, unity game engine, oculus

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Juan Sebastián Rivera Soriano, Rosa Urbano Gutiérrez

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The Shodan House and the Sarabhai House (Ahmedabad, India, 1954 and 1955, respectively) are considered some of the most important works of Le Corbusier produced in the last stage of his career. There are some academic publications that study the compositional and formal aspects of their architectural design, but there is no in-depth investigation into how the climatic conditions of this region were a determining factor in the design decisions implemented in these projects. This paper argues that Le Corbusier developed a specific architectural design strategy for these buildings based on scientific research on climate in the Indian context. This new language was informed by a pioneering study and interpretation of climatic data as a design methodology that would even involve the development of new design tools. This study investigated whether their use of climatic data meets values and levels of accuracy obtained with contemporary instruments and tools, such as Energy Plus weather data files and Climate Consultant. It also intended to find out if Le Corbusier's office’s intentions and decisions were indeed appropriate and efficient for those climate conditions by assessing these projects using BIM models and energy performance simulations from Design Builder. Accurate models were built using original historical data through archival research. The outcome is to provide a new understanding of the environment of these houses through the combination of modern building science and architectural history. The results confirm that in these houses, it was achieved a model of low energy consumption. This paper contributes new evidence not only on exemplary modern architecture concerned with environmental performance but also on how it developed progressive thinking in this direction.

Keywords: bioclimatic architecture, Le Corbusier, Shodan, Sarabhai Houses

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Authors: Yamkela Zitwana

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Soil erosion along the roads and/or road riparian areas has become a norm in the Eastern Cape. Soil erosion refers to the detachment and transportation of soil from one area (onsite) to another (offsite). This displacement or removal of soil can be caused by water, air and sometimes gravity. This will focus on accelerated soil erosion which is the result of human interference with the environment. Engcobo local municipality falls within the Eastern Cape Province in the eastern side of CHRIS HANI District municipality. The focus road is R61 protruding from the Engcobo town outskirts along the Nyanga SSS on the way to Umtata although it will cover few Kilometers away from Engcobo. This research aims at looking at the contribution made by road construction to soil erosion. Steps to achieve the result will involve revisiting the phases of road construction through unstructured interviews, identifying the types of soil erosion evident in the area by doing a checklist, checking the material, utensils and equipment used for road construction and the contribution of road construction through stratified random sampling checking the soil color and texture. This research will use a pragmatic approach which combines related methods and consider the flaws of each method so as to ensure validity, precision and accuracy. Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used. Statistical methods and GIS analysis will be used to analyze the collected data.

Keywords: soil erosion, road riparian, accelerated soil erosion, road construction, sampling, universal soil loss model, GIS analysis, focus groups, qualitative, quantitative method, research, checklist questionnaires, unstructured interviews, pragmatic approach

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Authors: K. V. N. K. C. Sharma

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Globalization, coupled with increase in competition is compelling organizations to adopt innovative strategies and identify core competencies in order to distinguish themselves from the competition. The capability of an organization is no longer determined by their products or services alone. The intellectual assets and quality of the human resource are fast emerging as key differentiators. Corporations are now positioning themselves as ‘brands’ not solely to market their products and services, but also to lure and to retain the best talent in the business. This paper identifies leadership as the ‘key element’ in developing an organization’s brand, which has a significant influence on the employee’s eventual perception of this external brand as portrayed by the organization. External branding incorporates innovation, consumer concern, trust, quality and sustainability. The paper contends that employees are indeed an organization’s ‘brand ambassadors. Internal branding involves taking care of these ambassadors of corporate brand i.e. human resource. If employees of an organization are not exposed to the organization’s branding (an ongoing process that functionally aligns, motivates and empower employees at all levels to consistently provide a satisfying customer experience), the external brand could be jeopardized. Internal branding, on the other hand, refers to employee’s perception of the organization’s brand. The current business environment can at best, be termed as volatile. Employees with the right technical and behavioral skills remain a scarce resource and the employers need to be ready to capture the attention, interest and commitment of the best and brightest candidates. This paper attempts to review and understand the relationship between employer branding and employee retention. The paper also seeks to identify potential impact of employer branding across all the factors affecting employees.

Keywords: external branding, organisation personnel, internal branding, leadership

Procedia PDF Downloads 223

Authors: Desi Meriyanti, Delina Puspa Rosana Firdaus, Ristia Rinati

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Nowadays, the presence of free radicals become a big concern due to its negative impact to the body, which can triggers the formation of degenerative diseases such as cancer, heart disease cardiovascular, diabetic mellitus and others. Free radical oxidation can be prevented by the presence of antioxidants. Naturally, the human body produces its own antioxidants. Because of the free radicals exposure are so intense, especially from the environment, it is necessary to supply antioxidants needed from outside, through the consumption of functional foods with high antioxidant content. Gethuk is one of the traditional snacks in Indonesia. Gethuk is made from cassava with minimal processing such as boiling, destructing, and forming. Gethuk is classified as a familiar snack in the community, so it has a potential for developing, especially into a functional food. The low content of antioxidants in gethuk can be overcome with the development of a product called Gethuk Marillo. Gethuk Marillo is gethuk with the addition of natural antioxidants from mangosteen pericarp extract which has a high content of xanthones, these compounds are classified into flavonoids and act as antioxidants in the body. Gethuk Marillo served along with tamarillo fruit sauce which is also high in antioxidants such as anthocyanin. The combination between 300 grams gethuk Marillo and sauce contain flavonoid about 31% of human antioxidant needs per day. Gethuk Marillo called as a functional food because of high flavonoids content which can prevent degenerative diseases namely cancer, as many studies that the xanthone and anthocyanins compounds can effectively prevent the formation of cancer cells in human body.

Keywords: Gethuk marillo, xanthones, anthocyanin, high antioxidants, anti-cancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 643

Authors: S. Potgieter-Vermaak, N. Bain, A. Brown, K. Shaw

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It is well-known from public news media that air pollution is a health hazard and is responsible for early deaths. The quantification of the relationship between air quality and health is a probing question not easily answered. It is known that airborne particulate matter (APM) <2.5µm deposits in the tracheal and alveoli zones and our research probes the possibility of quantifying pulmonary injury by linking reactive oxygen species (ROS) in these particles to DNA damage. Currently, APM mass concentration is linked to early deaths and limited studies probe the influence of other properties on human health. To predict the full extent and type of impact, particles need to be characterised for chemical composition and structure. APMs are routinely analysed for their bulk composition, but of late analysis on a micro level probing single particle character, using micro-analytical techniques, are considered. The latter, single particle analysis (SPA), permits one to obtain detailed information on chemical character from nano- to micron-sized particles. This paper aims to provide a snapshot of studies using data obtained from chemical characterisation and its link with in-vitro studies to inform on personal health risks. For this purpose, two studies will be compared, namely, the bioaccessibility of the inhalable fraction of urban road dust versus total suspended solids (TSP) collected in the same urban environment. The significant influence of metals such as Cu and Fe in TSP on DNA damage is illustrated. The speciation of Hg (determined by SPA) in different urban environments proved to dictate its bioaccessibility in artificial lung fluids rather than its concentration.

Keywords: air pollution, human health, in-vitro studies, particulate matter

Procedia PDF Downloads 212

Authors: Do Khanh Vy, Vuong Cat Khanh, Osamu Ohneda

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During atherosclerosis (AS) progression, perivascular adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (PVAT-MSCs) are exposed to the hypoxic environment due to the oxygenic deprivation which might influence the adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs) function. Additionally, it has been reported that the angiogenic ability of subcutaneous AT-MSCs (SAT-MSCs) was impaired in the AS patients. However, up to now, the effects of AS on the characteristics and function of PVAT-MSCs have not been clarified yet. In the present study, we analyzed the AS microenvironment effects on the characteristics and function of AT-MSCs. We found that there was no significant difference in cellular morphology and differentiation ability between SAT-MSCs and PVAT-MSCs in AS patients. However, the proliferation of AS-derived PVAT-MSCs was less than those of AS-derived SAT-MSCs. Importantly, the migration of AS-derived PVAT-MSCs was faster than AS-derived SAT-MSCs. Of note, AS-derived PVAT-MSCs showed the upregulation of SDF1, which is related to the homing, and VEGF, which is related to the angiogenesis compared to those of AS-derived SAT-MSCs. Consistent with these results, AS-derived PVAT-MSCs showed the higher ability to recruit EPCs and ECs than AS-derived SAT-MSCs. In addition, EPCs and ECs which cultured in the presence of AS-derived PVAT-MSC conditioned medium showed the higher angiogenic function of the tube formation compared to those cultured in AS-derived SAT-MSC conditioned medium. This result suggests that the higher paracrine effects of AS-derived PVAT-MSCs support the angiogenic function of the target cells. Our data showed the different characteristics and functions of AT-MSCs derived from different sources of tissues. Under the AS microenvironment, it seems that the characteristics and functions of PVAT-MSCs might reflect the progression of AS. Further study will be necessary to clarify the mechanism in the future.

Keywords: atherosclerosis, mesenchymal stem cells, perivascular adipose tissue, subcutaneous adipose tissue

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Bensaid A., Mostephaoui T., Nedjai R.

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Climatic factors are the subject of considerable research, both methodologically and instrumentally. Under the effect of climate change, the approach to climate parameters with precision remains one of the main objectives of the scientific community. This is from the perspective of assessing climate change and its repercussions on humans and the environment. However, many regions of the world suffer from a severe lack of reliable instruments that can make up for this deficit. Alternatively, the use of empirical methods becomes the only way to assess certain parameters that can act as climate indicators. Several scientific methods are used for the evaluation of evapotranspiration which leads to its evaluation either directly at the level of the climatic stations or by empirical methods. All these methods make a point approach and, in no case, allow the spatial variation of this parameter. We, therefore, propose in this paper the use of three sources of information (network of weather stations of Meteo France, World Databases, and Moodis satellite images) to evaluate spatial evapotranspiration (ETP) using the Turc method. This first step will reflect the degree of relevance of the indirect (satellite) methods and their generalization to sites without stations. The spatial variation representation of this parameter using the geographical information system (GIS) accounts for the heterogeneity of the behaviour of this parameter. This heterogeneity is due to the influence of site morphological factors and will make it possible to appreciate the role of certain topographic and hydrological parameters. A phase of predicting the evolution over the medium and long term of evapotranspiration under the effect of climate change by the application of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios gives a realistic overview as to the contribution of aquatic systems to the scale of the region.

Keywords: climate change, ETP, MODIS, GIEC scenarios

Procedia PDF Downloads 85

Authors: Emmanuel Iyamuremye, Edouard Singirankabo, Alexis Habineza, Yunvirusaba Nelson

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Temperature is one of the most important climatic factors for crop production. However, severe temperatures cause drought, feverish and cold spells that have various consequences for human life, agriculture, and the environment in general. It is necessary to provide reliable information related to the incidents and the probability of such extreme events occurring. In the 21st century, the world faces a huge number of threats, especially from climate change, due to global warming and environmental degradation. The rise in temperature has a direct effect on the decrease in rainfall. This has an impact on crop growth and development, which in turn decreases crop yield and quality. Countries that are heavily dependent on agriculture use to suffer a lot and need to take preventive steps to overcome these challenges. The main objective of this study is to model the statistical behaviour of extreme maximum temperature values in Rwanda. To achieve such an objective, the daily temperature data spanned the period from January 2000 to December 2017 recorded at nine weather stations collected from the Rwanda Meteorological Agency were used. The two methods, namely the block maxima (BM) method and the Peaks Over Threshold (POT), were applied to model and analyse extreme temperature. Model parameters were estimated, while the extreme temperature return periods and confidence intervals were predicted. The model fit suggests Gumbel and Beta distributions to be the most appropriate models for the annual maximum of daily temperature. The results show that the temperature will continue to increase, as shown by estimated return levels.

Keywords: climate change, global warming, extreme value theory, rwanda, temperature, generalised extreme value distribution, generalised pareto distribution

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Yumeng Ma, Fang Wang, Jinxia Huang

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Researchers put forward higher requirements for efficient acquisition and utilization of domain knowledge in the big data era. As literature is an effective way for researchers to quickly and accurately understand the research situation in their field, the knowledge discovery based on literature has become a new research method. As a tool to organize and manage knowledge in a specific domain, the subject knowledge base can be used to mine and present the knowledge behind the literature to meet the users' personalized needs. This study designs the construction route of the subject knowledge base for specific research problems. Information extraction method based on knowledge engineering is adopted. Firstly, the subject knowledge model is built through the abstraction of the research elements. Then under the guidance of the knowledge model, extraction rules of knowledge points are compiled to analyze, extract and correlate entities, relations, and attributes in literature. Finally, a database platform based on this structured knowledge is developed that can provide a variety of services such as knowledge retrieval, knowledge browsing, knowledge q&a, and visualization correlation. Taking the construction practices in the field of activating blood circulation and removing stasis as an example, this study analyzes how to construct subject knowledge base based on literature knowledge extraction. As the system functional test shows, this subject knowledge base can realize the expected service scenarios such as a quick query of knowledge, related discovery of knowledge and literature, knowledge organization. As this study enables subject knowledge base to help researchers locate and acquire deep domain knowledge quickly and accurately, it provides a transformation mode of knowledge resource construction and personalized precision knowledge services in the data-intensive research environment.

Keywords: knowledge model, literature knowledge extraction, precision knowledge services, subject knowledge base

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: L. Sasikala, Bhaarathi Dhurai

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Increase in antibiotic resistance bacteria leads to the development of active wound dressings, which absorb any bodily fluid, evaporation of moisture at a certain rate and can be easily removed after healing. Natural materials like chitosan, herbs, and honey have number of active materials present in them to accelerate wound healing and to arrest wound in infections. Hence with the advantages of biomaterials, a film was prepared using chitosan and honey. There are a lot of practical considerations with respect to honey. Honey exerts many beneficial actions on the wound surface only when it remains. The attempts to hold honey on the surface of the wound remain a question because honey becomes a very runny liquid when it comes to body temperature. Hence, this research was focused on development of a new form of wound dressing, by holding honey on the wound surface in different form and also which has a combined effect of manuka (Leptospermum scoparium) honey and chitosan. Chitosan-honey film was prepared using casting technique. Films were prepared in different variations; with acetic acid and with lactic acid; with and without honey. In summary, the film produced from 2% chitosan- 1% lactic acid as a solvent, with 10% honey shows optimum inclined values in all the tests, like thickness, folding endurance, weight, water vapor transmission, tensile strength, swelling ratio and antimicrobial activity, with specific reference to wound dressings. The film has water vapor transmission of 1680 g/m²/day, water absorption of 225%, tensile strength of 39.1N/mm² and elongation of 50.3%. There is a notable inhibition zone of 29 mm against S. aureus and 24 mm against E. coli in the case of chitosan-lactic acid-honey film. The film also arrests, microbes transmitting from the outside environment to wound bed, which can be used as an effective wound dressing material.

Keywords: casting technique, chitosan, honey, film, wound dressings

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Authors: Toshikee Yadav, Deepti Tikariha, Jyotsna Lakra, Kallol K. Ghosh

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Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are potent atmospheric pollutants that consist of two or more benzene rings. PAHs have low solubility in water. Their slow dissolution can contaminate large amounts of ground water for long period. They are hydrophobic, non-polar and neutral in nature and are known to have potential mutagenic or carcinogenic activity. In current scenario their removal from the environment, water and soil is still a great challenge and scientists worldwide are engaged to invent and design novel separation technology and decontaminating systems. Various physical, chemical, biological and their combined technologies have been applied to remediate organic-contaminated soils and groundwater. Surfactants play a vital role in the solubilization of these hydrophobic organic compounds. In the present investigation Solubilization capabilities of structurally different gemini surfactants i.e. butanediyl-1,4-bis(dimethyldodecylammonium bromide) (C12-4-C12,2Br−), 2-butanol-1,4-bis (dimethyldodecylammonium bromide) (C12-4(OH)-C12,2Br−), 2,3-butanediol-1,4-bis (dimethyldodecylammonium bromide) (C12-4(OH)2-C12,2Br−) for three polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); phenanthrene (Phe),fluorene (Fluo) and acenaphthene (Ace) have been studied spectrophotometrically at 300 K. The result showed that the solubility of PAHs increases linearly with increasing surfactant concentration, as an implication of association between the PAHs and micelles. Molar solubilization ratio (MSR), micelle–water partition coefficient (Km) and Gibb's free energy of solubilization (ΔG°s) for PAHs have been determined in aqueous medium. (C12-4(OH)2-C12,2Br−) shows the higher solubilization for all PAHs. Findings of the present investigation may be useful to understand the role of appropriate surfactant system for the solubilization of toxic hydrophobic organic compounds.

Keywords: gemini surfactant, molar solubilization ratio, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, solubilization

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Authors: Chun-Yuan Chen, Ming-Chang Li, Xiu-Hui Wen, Yi-Ching Tu

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The objective of this study explores GPS (Global Positioning System) applied to trace construction vehicles such as trucks or cranes, help to pattern the earth-dumping stations of traffic construction in Taiwan. Traffic construction in this research is defined as the engineering of high-speed railways, expressways, and which that distance more than kilometers. Audit the location and check the compliance with regulations of earth-dumping stations is one of important tasks in Taiwan EPA. Basically, the earth-dumping station was known as one source of particulate matter from air pollution during construction process. Due to GPS data can be analyzed quickly and be used conveniently, this study tried to find out dumping stations by modeling vehicles tracks from GPS data during work cycle of construction. The GPS data updated from 13 vehicles related to an expressway construction in central Taiwan. The GPS footprints were retrieved to Keyhole Markup Language (KML) files so that can pattern the tracks of trucks by computer applications, the data was collected about eight months- from Feb. to Oct. in 2017. The results of GPS footprints identified dumping station and outlined the areas of earthwork had been passed to the Taiwan EPA for on-site inspection. Taiwan EPA had issued advice comments to the agency which was in charge of the construction to prevent the air pollution. According to the result of this study compared to the commonly methods in inspecting environment by manual collection, the GPS with KML patterning and modeling method can consumes less time. On the other hand, through monitoring the GPS data from construction vehicles could be useful for administration to development and implementation of strategies in environmental management.

Keywords: automatic management, earth-dumping station, environmental management, Global Positioning System (GPS), particulate matter, traffic construction

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Authors: Francimar Alves, Marcos Castro, Marllus Lustosa

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In the context of the teaching of computer programming, the choice of tool to use is very important in the initiation and continuity of learning a programming language. The literature tools do not always provide usability and pedagogical dynamism clearly and accurately for effective learning. This hypothesis implies fall in productivity and difficulty of learning a particular programming language by students. The integrated development environments (IDEs) Dev-C ++ and Code :: Blocks are widely used in introductory courses for undergraduate courses in Computer Science for learning C and C ++ languages. However, after several years of discontinuity maintaining the source code of Dev-C ++ tool, the continued use of the same in the teaching and learning process of the students of these institutions has led to difficulties, mainly due to the lack of update by the official developers, which resulted in a sequence of problems in using it on educational settings. Much of the users, dissatisfied with the IDE Dev-C ++, migrated to Code :: Blocks platform targeting the more dynamic range in the learning process of the C and C ++ languages. Nevertheless, there is still the need to create a tool that can provide the resources of most IDE's software development literature, however, more interactive, simple, accurate and efficient. This motivation led to the creation of Falcon C ++ tool, IDE that brings with features that turn it into an educational platform, which focuses primarily on increasing student learning index in the early disciplines of programming and algorithms that use the languages ​​C and C ++ . As a working methodology, a field research to prove the truth of the proposed tool was used. The test results and interviews with entry-level students and intermediate in a postsecondary institution gave basis for the composition of this work, demonstrating a positive impact on the use of the tool in teaching programming, showing that the use of Falcon C ++ software is beneficial in the teaching process of the C and C ++ programming languages.

Keywords: ide, education, learning, development, language

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Authors: Upasana Ranjib

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Sports psychology, as a niche area, has, since the last two decades, found for itself a space within the outer peripheries of the discipline of traditional psychology. It has aimed to understand the many variables that push athletes to enhance their performances. While sociological aspects have been duly represented in academia, little has been written about the role of culture in shaping the psyche of athletes. The impact that cultures of different communities and societies have towards specifics like gender, castes, religion and race and how that helps evolve an individual has not been fully addressed. In the case of Sport, culture has made itself felt in the form of stereotypes, traditional outlooks towards sects and its implication on the engagement with sports. Culture is an environment that an individual imbibes. It is what shapes him, physically as well as mentally. Their nurture and nature both stem from it and depend on it. To realize the linkages between their nurture, nature and sports efficiency, cultural studies must collaborate in scholarship with psychology and practical sports. Cultural sports psychology would allow sports psychologists, coaches and even athletes themselves to understand the behavioural variations that affect their performance. The variations in the performance of athletes from different cultures and countries could be attributed to their socio-political, economic and environmental differences. These cultural influences shape and impact the athlete's behaviour and might lead as a gateway to understanding their skill sets and internal motivational factors. With that knowledge in mind, this paper aims to understand and reflect on how, in the present times of heavy sporting competition, shifting cultural equations and changing world dynamics, it is mandatory to infuse Cultural Studies with Sports Psychology to understand how Sports Psychologists can help and augment the performances of athletes.

Keywords: sporting performance, Asian sports, sports psychology, cultural psychology, society

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Authors: Arash Sadeghi, Taimaz Larimian

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This study explores the intricate interplay between community-based social capital (CBSC) and neighbourhood dynamics in enhancing resilience of Iranian SMEs, particularly under the strain of international sanctions. Utilising fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), we examine how different dimensions of CBSC—structural, relational, and cognitive—interact with neighbourhood socio-economic and built-environment characteristics to influence SME resilience. Findings reveal four configurations that contribute to the presence of resistance and five configurations associated with the adaptation outcome. Each configuration demonstrates a distinct combination of social capital elements, which vary according to the specific socio-economic and built-environmental characteristics of the neighbourhoods. The first configuration highlights the importance of structural social capital in deprived areas for building resistance, while the second emphasises the role of relational social capital in low-density, minimally deprived areas. Overall, cognitive social capital seems to be less effective in driving economic resilience compared to structural and relational types. This research contributes to the literature by providing a nuanced understanding of the synergistic effects of CBSC dimensions and neighbourhood characteristics on SME resilience. By adopting a configurational approach, we move beyond traditional methodologies, offering a comprehensive view of the complex dynamics of CBSC and neighbourhood characteristics and their impact on SME resilience in varying neighbourhoods.

Keywords: community-based social capital, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), place-based resilience, resistance

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Authors: Monique Joyce L. Disamburum, Nicole C. Faustino, Ashley Angela A. Fazon, Jessie F. Rubonal

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Traditional jeepneys contribute significantly to air pollution in the Philippines, negatively affecting both the environment and people. In response, the researchers investigated Sphagnum moss which has high adsorbent properties and can be used as a filter. Therefore, this research aims to create a muffler filter additive to reduce the smoke density emitted by traditional jeepneys. Various materials, such as moss, cornstarch, a metal pipe, bolts, and a papermaking screen frame, were gathered. The moss underwent a blending process with a cornstarch mixture until it achieved a pulp-like consistency, subsequently molded using a papermaking screen frame and left for sun drying. Following this, a metal prototype was created by drilling holes around the tumbler and inserting bolts. The mesh wire containing the filter was carefully placed into the hole, secured by two bolts. In the final phase, there were three setups, each undergoing one trial in the LTO emission testing. Each trial consisted of six rounds of purging, and after that the average smoke density was measured. According to the findings of this study, the filter aided in lowering the average smoke density. The one layer setup produced an average of 1.521, whereas the two layer setup produced an average of 1.082. Using One-Way Anova, it was demonstrated that there is a significant difference between the setups. Furthermore, the Tukey HSD Post Hoc test revealed that Setups A and C differed significantly (p = 0.04604), with Setup C being the most successful in reducing smoke density (mean difference -1.4128). Overall, the researchers came to the conclusion that employing Sphagnum moss as a filter can lower the average smoke density released by traditional jeepneys.

Keywords: sphagnum moss, Jeepney filter, smoke density, Jeepney emission

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Authors: Limor Gadot, Orly Sarid

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Integration of young adults with disabilities (YAWD) into workplaces provides an opportunity for social and occupational mobility, enabling them to financial independence. To enhance integration, it is important to understand their occupational preferences as well as the factors that influencing it such as demographic variables, self-assessed health, beliefs about work, subjective norms, and self-efficacy. Planned behavior theory was chosen as a basis for this study. A cross-sectional study, based on preliminary sample of 37 YAWD who have been recognized by the National Insurance Institute and are engaged in a year of national service. The finding shows that most of the participants were single (97%) women (60%); average age was 22(+ 2) years, approximately half were secular. Most of the participants had disabilities resulting from CP (96%). Self-assessed health was correlated positively and significantly with behavioral intentions to work in the free market (r = .33, p = .05), and significant negative correlation with behavioral intentions to work in supported settings (r =.-40, p = .01), and sheltered settings (r =-.36, p = .03): individuals who perceived themselves as having more severe disabilities showed a greater tendency to choose a workplace with more rehabilitative inputs. Furthermore, women showed a greater tendency than men to perceive their disability as impairing their future intention to work: t (36) = 2.23, p < .05. Beliefs about work were positively associated with normative beliefs (r = .308, p = .06). The findings indicate that, especially with women, perceptions of health are related to occupational preferences. Moreover, the findings indicate that the relationship between subjective norms about work and normative beliefs about integrating in a workplace that prevail in the individual's environment affects occupational preferences. The contribution of the study lies in the development of new responses and interventions to encourage adults with disabilities to work.

Keywords: young adults, disabilities, work preferences, occupational preferences

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Authors: Feng Huang, Carlos G. Ochoa, Haitao Zhao

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Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, is located at the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin. It has great value in socioeconomic development and is internationally recognized as an important lacustrine and wetland ecosystem with abundant biodiversity. Impacted by ongoing climate change and anthropogenic activities, especially the regulation of the Three Gorges Reservoir since 2003, Poyang Lake has experienced significant water regime evolution, resulting in challenges for the management of water resources and the environment. Quantifying the contribution of hydrologic and topographic changes to water regime alteration is necessary for policymakers to design effective adaption strategies. Long term hydrologic data were collected and the back-propagation neural networks were constructed to simulate the lake water level. The impacts of hydrologic and topographic changes were differentiated through scenario analysis that considered pre-impact and post-impact hydrologic and topographic scenarios. The lake water regime was characterized by hydrologic indicators that describe monthly water level fluctuations, hydrologic features during flood and drought seasons, and frequency and rate of hydrologic variations. The results revealed different contributions of hydrologic and topographic changes to different features of the lake water regime.Noticeable changes were that the water level declined dramatically during the period of reservoir impoundment, and the drought was enhanced during the dry season. The hydrologic and topographic changes exerted a synergistic effect or antagonistic effect on different lake water regime features. The findings provide scientific reference for lacustrine and wetland ecological protection associated with water regime alterations.

Keywords: back-propagation neural network, scenario analysis, water regime, Poyang Lake

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Authors: Minoru Moriguchi

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This research introduces the concept of a monolingual Japanese dictionary for non-native speakers of Japanese, whose temporal title is Dictionary of Contemporary Japanese for Advanced Learners (DCJAL). As the language market is very small compared with English, a monolingual Japanese dictionary for non-native speakers, containing sufficient entries, has not been published yet. In such a dictionary environment, Japanese-language learners are using bilingual dictionaries or monolingual Japanese dictionaries for Japanese people. This research started in 2017, as a project team which consists of four Japanese and two non-native speakers, all of whom are linguists of the Japanese language. The team has been trying to propose the concept of a monolingual dictionary for non-native speakers of Japanese and to provide the entry list, the definition samples, the list of defining vocabulary, and the writing manual. As the result of seven-year research, DCJAL has come to have 28,060 head words, 539 entry examples, 4,598-word defining vocabulary, and the writing manual. First, the number of the entry was determined as about 30,000, based on an experimental method using existing six dictionaries. To make the entry list satisfying this number, words suitable for DCJAL were extracted from the Tsukuba corpus of the Japanese language, and later the entry list was adjusted according to the experience as Japanese instructor. Among the head words of the entry list, 539 words were selected and added with lexicographical information such as proficiency level, pronunciation, writing system (hiragana, katakana, kanji, or alphabet), definition, example sentences, idiomatic expression, synonyms, antonyms, grammatical information, sociolinguistic information, and etymology. While writing the definition of the above 539 words, the list of the defining vocabulary was constructed, based on frequent vocabulary used in a Japanese monolingual dictionary. Although the concept of DCJAL has been almost perfected, it may need some more adjustment, and the research is continued.

Keywords: monolingual dictionary, the Japanese language, non-native speaker of Japanese, defining vocabulary

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Authors: Monojit Manna, Arpan Adhikary

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In Mobile cloud sensing across the globe, an emerging paradigm is selected by the user to compute sensing tasks. In urban cities current days, Mobile vehicles are adapted to perform the task of data sensing and data collection for universality and mobility. In this work, we focused on the optimality and mobile nodes that can be selected in order to collect the maximum amount of data from urban areas and fulfill the required data in the future period within a couple of minutes. We map out the requirement of the vehicle to configure the maximum data optimization problem and budget. The Application implementation is basically set up to generalize a realistic online platform in which real-time vehicles are moving apparently in a continuous manner. The data center has the authority to select a set of vehicles immediately. A deep learning-based scheme with the help of mobile vehicles (DLMV) will be proposed to collect sensing data from the urban environment. From the future time perspective, this work proposed a deep learning-based offline algorithm to predict mobility. Therefore, we proposed a greedy approach applying an online algorithm step into a subset of vehicles for an NP-complete problem with a limited budget. Real dataset experimental extensive evaluations are conducted for the real mobility dataset in Rome. The result of the experiment not only fulfills the efficiency of our proposed solution but also proves the validity of DLMV and improves the quantity of collecting the sensing data compared with other algorithms.

Keywords: mobile crowdsensing, deep learning, vehicle recruitment, sensing coverage, data collection

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Authors: Farzad Doostishoar, Abdolreza Hasanzadeh, Seyed Amin Ayatolahi Mousavi

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Introduction and Goals: Deuterium has different action from its isotopes hydrogen in chemical reactions and biochemical processes. It is not a significant difference in heavier atoms between the behavior of heavier isotope and the lighter One but for very lighter atoms it is significant . According to that most of the weight of all creatures body is water natural rate can be significant. In this article we want to study the effect of reduced deuterium on the fungus cell. If we saw the dependence of deuterium concentration of environment on the cells growth we can test this in invivo models too. Methods: First we measured deuterium concentration of the distillated water this analyze was operated by Arak’s heavy water company. Then the deuterium was diluted to ½ ¼ 1/8 1/16 by adding water free of deuterium for making media. In tree of samples the deuterium concentration was increased by adding D2O up to 10,50,100 times more concentrated. For candida albicans growth we used sabor medium and for aspergillus fomigatis growth we used sabor medium containing chloramphenicol. After culturing the funguses species we put the mediums for each species in the shaker incubator for 10 days in 25 centigrade. In different days and times the plates were studied morphologically and some microscopic characteristics were studied too. This experiments and cultures were repeated 3 times. Results: Statistical analyzes by paired-sample T test showed that aspergilus fomigatoos growth was decreased in concentration of 72 ppm( half deuterium concentration of negative control) significantly. In deuterium concentration reduction the growth reduce into the negative control significantly. The project results showed that candida albicans was sensitive to reduce and decrease of the deuterium in all concentrations.

Keywords: deuterium, cancer cell, growth, candida albicans

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Authors: Paridhi Agarwal, Kusum M. George

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A cynic is someone upset about the future prematurely. In today’s highly competitive workplace, cynicism has become a prominent concern. It is a controversial issue that brings about psychological disengagement and antagonism towards the management. In organizational sciences, scientific investigation of this negative work behavior is lacking, and so there is no universal definition so far. But most commonly, Organizational Cynicism (OC) has been characterized as an unfavorable attitude towards the organization, encompassing a belief that the organization has low integrity, negative affect, and depreciative behavioral tendencies. Given its prevalence, this study aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on OC. This research examines the predictability of OC from two factors- Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) among millennials in India as well as identify contradictions in today’s scenario. Standardized Organizational Cynicism Scale comprising of three components, Perceived Organizational Support Questionnaire and Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Test are used on a convenient sample of 104 corporate sector employees in the age range 22-35 years. Correlation test elucidated the relationships, and regression analysis revealed the level of influence of the above variables on OC. Surprisingly, Emotional-Social Awareness had stronger relationships with all dimensions of OC in males as compared to females. It was also seen that EI and POS, together with predicted OC, but separately, only POS accounted for variability in OC, and this impact was much stronger for males, implying that there are other important factors that make females cynical at work. Thus, the over-emphasis on EI training for the millennial generation has also been challenged in this study. It can be said that there are avertible preconditions to the negative attitude- OC. This research has important managerial implications in areas of recruitment, training, and organizational environment.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, millennials, organizational cynicism, perceived organizational support.

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